Once a year, around this time, I usually take a look back to
see where I am in my world as compared to where I was when I began this
adventure of Living Free. It's now about six years from the time I started this
blog and five and a half years from when I dove head first into the new world
of living free without a fixed home or business location. I have since come to
call it being happily houseless and location independent. So, here's my
six-year report. The original post (excerpted) from February 2008 is copied
below. My updates are in italic bold. The original post begins
now . . .
******************
This blog is about exactly what the title states - “living
and working free.” Now, to make sure this concept is perfectly clear, I DO NOT
mean living FOR free or working FOR free. I mean living and working freely
under our own rules, terms and conditions for our lifestyles and work styles.
And, it is important to note that there are no rules, terms or conditions carved
in stone that tell us how we should live or how we should work. The only rules
are those that we each establish for ourselves in our own hearts and minds . .
. unless we adopt the rules, conditions and terms that others may want to
impose on us. This still holds except it is more apparent then ever that
we are a society of laws, rules, regulations and they are imposed on us by a
government that is becoming more oppressive . . . in my opinion.
My postings here are going to be based on MY feelings,
opinions, concepts, wants and needs. What I say may or may not apply to you –
or perhaps only parts of what I say may apply to you. So, do not, under any
circumstances, consider anything I say here to be gospel. What I say only
pertains to me and my life. The operative word in all of this is “FREE!” I hope
by posting my thoughts and feelings here that I might be able to instill a
feeling of freedom in each person who lands on this blog and chooses to read
it. Will it change your life? I sure hope so, but not to my benefit and credit
– rather to your own benefit and credit. I stand by these
statements.
This is beginning as a blog. A podcast will follow very
shortly. Six years and counting. No podcast, yet, although I have been
gathering material that may one day find it's way into podcast form.
Money is not the only measure of success. You can't buy
happiness with money, but it can make life more comfortable. Everyone needs
some money to sustain whatever lifestyle they choose for themselves. The real
issue, too often, is that we don't determine what REALLY makes us happy and
fulfilled. So, we tend to center ourselves around a JOB and the largest amount
of MONEY we can get and we spend 30, 40, 50 years of our lives slaving at some
job that, statistically, is unfulfilling to more then 70% of the workforce. Our
most valuable – actually priceless – commodity is slipping by virtually
unnoticed UNTIL we reach or pass middle age and wonder where all the TIME of
our lives went. This continues to be true with the exception that over
the past six years the "middle-class" has diminished in size as a
percentage of our population. The poverty level has increased as a percentage
of the population. Income, generally for those not in the top ten percent
income bracket (and especially the top one percent) has declined significantly
and with it, debt seems to have increased and lifestyle has been negatively
impacted. Finally, the top one percent income bracket has become obscenely
wealthier at this same time.
So, living and working free means determining in your own
mind and heart what is REALLY IMPORTANT to you, creating a lifestyle that
reflects what really fulfills you and sets you free to enjoy the TIME of your
life. It means finding work that you find fulfilling and you can enjoy and even
be passionate about. . . . I am really no longer willing to sacrifice my
priceless time to do anything that I don't want to do, don't like doing or
just, in general, I find a waste of my time. I will only “trade” my time for
“money” when what I'm doing with that time is fulfilling, satisfying and
enjoyable – in my personal opinion (and no one else's opinion really counts
since it's my life and my time). Again, I stand by this paragraph.
Nothing has changed in my mind.
So, that's what this blog is all about. I'll expose you to
ideas, concepts, opportunities, lifestyles, work styles, people, places and so
on. I very much invite your comments and if you have something you'd like me to
post as part of this blog – submit it to me at ed@edhelvey.com . . . I'll also go on a
rant once in a while, so be prepared. There are a lot of injustices,
incompetence, inconsiderateness, etc. in this world – well, whoever said this
world or life was fair, anyway – but it's still my prerogative to rant on my
own blog. I believe I have delivered on everything I said I would in this
paragraph. I have changed my email address (and inserted it above). I also have
eliminated the rules for leaving comments because I've found that the readers
of this blog are, like me, very civil. However, I still watch the comments and
I've had to begin using a "captcha" security plug-in to eliminate the
multitude of computer/automated spam comments I began receiving. I guess that's
a sign of success of sorts. The blog has been found.
In closing this first, introductory post, I want to give
credit to a book and its author as my inspiration for this blog. The book is Working
Free: Practical Alternatives to the 9 to 5 Job by John Applegath. The book
was published in 1982. I read it in 1986 or 1987 and it took me 20 years to,
finally, locate the author. I spent three terrific days with John in Durham, NH
and found him to be delightful. I have yet to visit with John Applegath
again, but I'm planning a trek to New York State and New England in about a
month (June and July '14). I plan to be up in that region revisiting places and
people from my youth and earlier adult life. And, as always, I'll be exploring
many areas in that part of the U.S. that I have not been to before. I'm also
hoping to meet, as I usually do, lots of interesting new people along the way.
One part of the plan is to visit with John Applegath again. He has, since my
last visit, been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. If any of you blog readers
are in the New York State and New England region and would like to meet up,
please drop me a note so I can see how and when such a visit might fit into my
itinerary (which I'm currently planning).
Another person you'll hear from and whose book also was an
inspiration is Barbara Winter, whose book, Making a Living Without a Job:
Winning Ways for Creating Work that You Love, is still in print, I believe.
She was easier to track down and I have been in contact with her by e-mail and
phone. Barbara and I have not yet met in person, but I intend to meet her this
summer in Las Vegas. I reported in an earlier update of this post that I
didn't attend that podcasting conference and still haven't made it to Las
Vegas. However, I also mentioned that I did meet up with Barbara in Sedona,
Arizona at a workshop in April of 2010. Delightful. And, I am actually planning
to finally get to Las Vegas late this year, probably November or December when
I'll be trekking throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
I'll be leaving the east coast the very end of September or by the first of
October. Once again, any blog readers between WV and Texas (I'll announce my
route when I have it planned) and in Texas and the other states mentioned who
want to meet up with me, drop me an email so I can see how it will work into my
itinerary. I look forward to meeting up with you. I'm also looking forward to
meeting up with some bloggers who I follow while I'm in that part of the U.S.
******************
So, that covers the update on the original "Welcome to
My World" post that kicked this blog off on February 6, 2008. As you can
tell from the inline commentary above, this blog and I have remained pretty
true to what the objective was when I started it.
I've Grown and Changed
What has changed is yours truly, ME, the happily houseless,
location independent, nomadic, living free idealist. I've grown in many ways.
The changes and the growth are reflected in this blog. Of course, that was
really one of my objectives in creating and maintaining the blog. It is a
chronicle, if you will, of who I was and who I'm becoming. Notice I didn't say
who I have become. Life, as we all seem to allude to, is a continuous journey
all ending at the same ultimate destination. Thus, I find I am always becoming
and never become. It's a process of change and growth.
When I began this adventure and lifestyle change I felt that
I needed a 40-foot, diesel powered, motor coach for my mobile lifestyle.
Something held me back from making that move. As I did my research and learned
more and more about the mobile lifestyle and myself, I realized that more
(bigger) wasn't necessarily better for me. I began thinking smaller. I have
continued to expand on the concept that not only can less be more, but it is
more. I have become involved in a few RV forums on the Internet and learned
massive amounts of information and knowledge from those living the lifestyle I
thought I wanted.
Then, due to a series of circumstances, I ended up
purchasing another high-top conversion van (replacing one I had sold not long
before) and went to the opposite extreme. That is, I went from believing I
needed that 40 foot motor coach to live the lifestyle I thought I wanted to
realizing that what I really wanted was simplicity, frugality and as small a
"footprint" as could reasonably accommodate my basic living needs. I
joined some Internet forums about "vandwelling" and found that I was
much more in tune with this kind of lifestyle.
Personal Imprisonment
I have also released most feelings of personal imprisonment. Some of
this has been in the form of self-imposed stress. Some has been in the form of
emotional and psychological traps. I've have become very comfortable as a loner
and solo traveler. I've accepted that while I never say never, I am no longer
looking for a "soul mate" or compatible partner. Maybe that might
still happen, but not because I'm seeking anyone. I guess I'm willing to just
allow nature to take its course. I've accepted that I'll never accomplish or realize
all of the dreams I've carried with me since my youth and added over a
lifetime. I will die one day with "unfinished business," as does
everyone.
I've also accepted that, while I've had a fantastic
professional career as an entrepreneur, primarily in the audio/sound/recording
and video production industries, I've become a dinosaur. While some of my
contemporaries are still working their hearts out at staying current and
relevant in business and the electronic media I've so enjoyed, I no longer have
the desire or drive to play in that "sandbox" anymore. I'm not
exactly throwing in the towel, per se. I'm simply accepting my own inadequacies
and the aging process. Years ago, while I was still in the earlier phases of my
professional career, I met a man in my profession of "advanced age,"
probably about my current age. I gained insight from him, but viewed him as a
dinosaur. I wondered how he felt at his age about his profession and position in the industry at that time. Now, I know the answer to that.
Keeping Up?
During this five and a half years of my living free,
alternative lifestyle I've done my best to keep as current as possible with
world, national and local happenings, technology, my industry, the financial
world, politics, etc. What I've realized is that it's way too complex to keep up
with it all. Even my 35-year-old son (he's two years older now than I was when
he was born) says, in some ways, even he's beginning to feel like a dinosaur
already. So, how can I hope to keep up? Thus, I've begun to "let it go."
By that I mean that I don't get into debates/arguments over politics with
anyone anymore. There's no percentage in it. Despite all those who believe we
still (if ever) actually have some voice in our government and society, I see
it all as a game of pawns. There is a ruling class and they run everything,
despite what the populace wants. So, why waste precious time on something that
I can't do anything about. The same holds for the other issues I mentioned.
It's taken the six years since I launched this blog and the
five and a half years since I made my major lifestyle change to realize and
accept that the ONLY thing I have, perhaps, a reasonable amount of control over
is my own life. When I started out in this alternative lifestyle adventure, I
believed that I knew something that no one else had figured out and, I guess, I
had a bit of a 'superiority' attitude. Those who didn't see my way, as the
truth and light, the "gospel of freedom," if you will, were the
losers. Today, I've accepted that I was one of them for most of my life. It's
all about choices. I'm very happy with mine. I believe a lot, perhaps, many or
most others, choosing a more traditional, mainstream lifestyle, are not very free
or happy. I'm quite willing to share anything anyone wants to know about me and
my current, living free, lifestyle. But, I make no judgment. They choose to
live how they desire and that is fine by me. I guess it's sort of a "live
and let live" attitude that I've grown into.
Everyday is an Opportunity for Personal Growth
Everyday is an opportunity for each of us. Some days I
experience great "aha's," meet or communicate with others of like
mindsets and different mindsets and discover new places and things of interest.
I'm seldom ever bored and, as a single, loner, I'm never lonely. There are
other days when, frankly, I squander the time on mindless pursuits, yet don't
feel guilty since it's my choice how I spend my precious time.
As I've looked back at many of the older posts in this blog,
I can see these changes in attitude and mindset. I can see where, at certain
times, I've pontificated on some topics. Yet, I also find pearls of wisdom that
only can be acquired and shared by trial and error, maintaining an open mind
and continuing to allow all of my senses experience life as much as I choose
to. I share these pearls of wisdom, with you, my reader. I still don't expect
you to take everything I offer here as gospel according to Ed Helvey, but if
you do gain some insight that assists or helps you in anyway to evolve, grow and
improve your life and perception, whether I know about it or not, I'm
gratified. In about a year I'll revisit this first post again and determine
what new growth I've experienced.
